General Smuts: The independence is abandoned as far as foreign relations are concerned, and with reference to the internal government, that is placed under the supervision of the British Government, so that the effect of these two clauses is: That the independence is abandoned and that the two Republics cannot after that be considered as sovereign States.
Lord Milner: I understand very well that they would not then be sovereign States, but my mind is not clear enough to be able to say what they would virtually be.
Lord Kitchener: They would be a new kind of "International Animal."
General Smuts: As history teaches us, it has happened before that questions were solved by compromises. And this draft proposal is as near as we can come to colonial government.
Lord Kitchener: Do you accept the annexations?
General Smuts: Not formally, but I do not understand that this proposal would be in conflict with the annexation proclamations.
Lord Kitchener: I fear that my mind is not clear enough to understand this. There will have to be two Governments in one State. And how do you propose that the government should be carried on?
General Smuts: A fuller explanation would have to be given to the word supervision; and I thought that this was exactly the point which could be further discussed, and on which we could negotiate.
Lord Milner: I shall certainly not depart from a clear basis to accept a vague basis.
Lord Kitchener: I feel convinced that your proposal could never be carried out in the practical government of a country.